EVOLUTION. 3 



which now surround us. Worlds, minerals, plants, 

 animals, man, language, morals, laws, literature, arts 

 and sciences, as they exist to-day, are the outcome 

 of the unceasing successions of cause and effect that 

 have taken place, through the preceding ages, in 

 accordance with natural law. 



But the term as popularly used refers more 

 especially to life, and in this sense. Evolution is the 

 theory that all existing forms of life have been pro- 

 duced from simpler forms by a gradual process of 

 change. Instead of an unchangeable universe con- 

 tinuing just as it was first created, the Evolutionist, 

 seeing constant variation in each kind or species of 

 plants and animals, has learned that these variations 

 may increase, until, in a long course of natural de- 

 scent, forms are produced that appear to be distinct 

 species. In the breeding of domestic animals and 

 in the crossing of plants, such marked differences 

 result in a short time, that it becomes certain such 

 variation continued through a long period would pro- 

 duce forms appearing to differ in kind from their 

 ancestors. 



It is therefore seen to be both possible and probable 

 that all existing forms of life have developed from a 

 few simple forms, or even from one form, by slow 

 processes of change continued through vast ages. 



Natural Selection, 

 The great work of Darwin was to point out the 



